2010: Bring The Acceleration

In 2002 an obscure book titled Thinking Geometrically was published. In the forward, Professor Jennifer Slack wrote (page xxvi-xxvii of the forward. That's right, the forward was almost 30 pages long, the rest of the book 185 pages!):

"I cannot imagine a more powerfully frightening despot than the one who can think geometrically. And where in the training to think geometrically do we train people to be ethical? In the "Philosophy of Technology" class I am currently teaching, one of the very best "thinkers" in the class, one of those who does indeed seem to grasp and hold in his mind's eye the work of multiple views, still plans to design war ships. I must admit to not understanding why. And I'm not sure that skill at geometrical thinking is enough to overcome the violence in war and in everyday life. I fear, in fact that it is quite capable of accelerating it, just as Waisanen suggests."

Yeah, I took Philosophy of Technology in 2001, and despite thoroughly perplexing the instructor, I loved it.

I'll do my best to steer clear of "despot", but no promises about, perhaps, "tyrant", or, some of my favorite words, "warmonger" and "ironmonger". Here's to another year of acceleration, in submarine firepower and every other aspect of life. Buckle up.

A Talk To Remember

I was having a marginally work-related conversation with an older gentleman at the office the other day. He was discussing the background to a horseback riding trip in Hawaii. He casually dropped this line about his travel companions:
"They were from my first wife's family. She was from Indonesia, and she died young."
He quickly moved on to the rest of his story of riding horses up mountainsides, but I couldn't shake that sentence. It's one of the most compelling I've ever heard. He was from New England, went into the Navy and served in special forces (all history I already knew). Somehow he met a young woman from Indonesia, fell in love, was married, then lost her. Entire novels are written on thinner foundations, but he summed up perhaps 5 years of his life in a single sentence. And I will never get to hear the remainder of the story, for there is no polite way to ask.

Christmas

Do you remember when Christmas was THIS awesome? I don't just mean getting this fired up over some long-coveted gift. I mean getting this fired up over finding things like Tic-Tacs in your stocking.

Merry Christmas from our family.

Merry Christmas from the military-industrial-congressional complex

No Trophy For #2

Purely academic question: what was the second sin committed by Adam and Eve? They may well have committed different sins for their encore, or maybe the same one. In either case, we will never know because it is not written. Why not? Why couldn't we have a running diary for their first year out of the Garden of Eden? Wouldn't their continued fall from Grace be informative for the rest of us?
I think we can infer from the Old Testament focus on Cain and Abel that Adam and Eve committed no murder, from the focus on the Tower of Babel that there were no pride issues, and from The Flood that they did not have any tendencies toward wickedness in a general sort of way. We can hopefully rule out adultery and covetousness, as well. Therefore, it was probably something we would consider hopelessly mundane and uninteresting.
I like to imagine that any further sin was an echo of sinning at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (a very long name, why not just use a maple or chestnut or cedar?). Based on their specific genders, I imagine Adam would have dealt with a great deal of anger, every time a thorn ripped his flesh or he tripped on a tree root while gathering/growing food. I think Eve would have wallowed in bitterness and resentment, every time she labored to deliver a child or noticed her uncomfortable, primitive clothing that gathered bugs and would not dry off. Almost every day would be a constant reminder of a single, epic failure on their part. I think they likely would have blamed Satan, blamed God, and blamed each other. Blaming themselves for their own plight likely did not come to mind.

The Front Fell Off

You have got to be kidding me. This was formerly the Russian guided missile attack submarine Kursk, of latter days a mausoleum housing the bodies of over 100 men. Rumors have the cause of the boat's sinking as a faultyweapon, probably one propelled by a fickle hydrogen peroxide system. It's no surprise to a ship designer that the weapon guys would be to blame. The weapon designers are darlings to naval officials because their product is sexier than the giant chunks of steel that ship designers use, so the weapons are allowed a much narrower safety margin than the boats they are carride on. This brings us to a famous tenet of naval architecture

(narrow safety margin)=(resting on bottom)

I did find a few things interesting from the top picture, especially. Note the monstrous size of the boat, second only to the American Ohio and Soviet Typhoon Classes of submarine for length and displacement. Despite that, the drydock in turn dwarfs the submarine. What a facility! Note that the missile tubes straddle the central pressure hull on both port and starboard. The pressure hull itself actually appears elliptical, but that could just be due to the perspective of the photograph. The missile tube fairings are decoupled from the missile tube hatches themselves, and each fairing covers two hatches. There could be a separate hydraulic or electrical interlock, but there appears to be no mechanical link between the two. The fairings seem to have a couple of linear hydraulic actuators apiece, but with a very precarious alignment in the full open position. In other words, they look like a wave or missile launch wouldn't have a tough time breaking them. From the picture, there is no sign of the hatch operating linkage at all, so it must be pretty flimsy. As for the sail, it looks bigger than a double-decker bus. I wonder what they put in that thing.

On a lighter note, here is more lighthearted case of the front falling off.

My Fair Ladies

The family recently spent an evening taking in a local fair. Where else can you:

• watch riding lawnmowers belch white smoke and take corners at 25 mph
• spend $23 for a greasy (albeit tasty) dinner and walk away thankful that the lady didn't charge for the bottle of water
• see your child defy gravity
• think it's OK that half of the teenage boys are wearing their high school football jersey
• spend some quality time with livestock

The ladies are pumped for the carousel

Good looking? Yes. Resembling her father? No.

Sarah Joy momentarily decides the fair is overrated. Wifey momentarily decides Sarah Joy is overrated

Radial acceleration=(velocity^2)/(radius of rotation)

Daddy, the #4 tractor is running a little rich

Where's my soundtrack? I wanted 'Ride of the Valkyries'!

Raise Snorkel

Raising snorkel; it's what most of the world's submarines still do every so often as a way of getting a breath of fresh air. We have been beyond busy the past month or so. Bulletized rundown:

• Samuel is doing GREAT. He has yet to catch up to his sister's for weight at 8 weeks of age, but he's smiling, and even laughing now. Very jovial, borderline jolly, he may be destined to be a gregarious fat man.
• Sweetness just started her second year of preschool. The socialization is good, but the academics of Pre-Kindergarten aren't going to benefit her much, since she now reads letters & cards she gets in the mail on her own.
• Sarah Joy is now talking, combining words and getting clearer by the day. Her feats of strength are already legendary in the toddler community. Seriously, she's BOSS, I'm afraid her build will be more like mine than Wifey's
• Wifey has really bounced back well from the delivery of Samurai. In the past few weeks she has absolutely slaughtered the furniture & appliance market (see next item)
• On the home front, I've cleared many vines, with more to go, prepared & sealed the deck, we're getting cable TV Sunday, have hosted many friends, purchased a used 21+ cubic foot freezer (like new, from acquaintances, $125!), Two wingback chairs (about $800, after an extended warranty), a futon for guests to sleep on (less than 1/2 price, $115!), and a patio set (couch, 2 large chairs, coffee table, originally $800, today only for $250!!!)
• Think about this: we've been in this house for about 12 weeks, and have only had DVDs to watch, and not really missed a thing. Only football convinced us to get cable.
• I've averaged 50 hours a week at work the past few weeks, and next week promises more of the same. Great timing! The gremlins have been at work again at our companion shipyard down South. It's worse than the papers let on. The best day had me at work at 5:00 A.M., leaving for 2 hours to pitch a softball game that went an unheard of (for that league) 90 minutes (we rallied from down 14-2 to win 22-21!), then back to work until 11:30 P.M. Wifey has been very supportive, but it's tough on the kids.
• ...and Paul K. finally retired at work. The last guy with more experience than me at work. A 70 year old Vietnam Vet (USMC). I will miss that man. Not just for the extra burden I now have on the job, but for a little perspective.
• Fantasy football starts in earnest on Sunday. I got Drew Brees as my QB... but I had Tom Brady last year.
• Go Lions
• Go Tigers
• I bought a chainsaw, hope to break that out in a little over a week. Pray for my fingers.
• I listened to the Neil Young album Harvest Moon last night, it was the first time I've had the time to enjoy an entire album at home in some time. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's a warm campfire, throwing off gentle light that somehow just makes the surrounding darkness even more overwhelming and oppressive.

Hopefully I won't go 6 weeks before posting again